a suspect is in custody in connection with a string of hair salon robberies around the chicago area. good afternoon. i'm steve sanders. and i'm dina bair. we welcome our viewers who are watching us around the country on wgn america and on the web. police have had this man in custody for a day now. clearly this is a major development in an investigation that stretches back to the beginning of december. the arrest came just hours after yet another robbery of a hair salon. as he did

workers get a good description of him and his car to four to chicago police who have been working on a joint investigation for several weeks. the robber has been captured on surveillance video and described by employees. ahead of the arrest yesterday chicago police indicated that they had a good lead since the suspect stock to a similar pattern. >> that is obviously something that helps us. >> police say detectives from several departments are still piecing together aspects of this investigation. much more

information about this arrest is expected this afternoon. clearly great news for salon operators throughout the chicago area. family of an actor who was injured says he's going to be ok. that information is coming from his father. we originally were told that he received second-degree burns to his throat. that is welcome news given the scare he received last night. the photographer was in the audience and is favrewas able

to capture the moment. witnesses say he had just taken a slate of fuel and was attempting to spin fireballs when his mascot on fire. there were flames flying off of him on to the ground. it was pretty dramatic. the cast was about five hours into a dress rehearsal for a performance. about a thousand people were in the theater watching and wondering what was going on. including members of the opera family. >> officials say they were prepared just in case something did go wrong. >> the actor moved off to stage left. there were fireguard on stage that took control of the situation. the fire occurred in was brought in. the upper says that he was wearing a fire proof

costume and that the stone had been approved by the chicago fire department. also video of last night's accident that has been turned over to the chicago fire department for investigation. we learned that there is another incident last week involving a different actor performing the same stunt. he was not heard as seriously but it also raises concerns about the stand. probably why the opera has decided to remove it. after a hostage standoff that lasted nearly a week.. a five- year-old alabama boy is back with his family, and his captor is dead. 65-year-old jimmy lee dykes kidnapped the boy from a school bus last week, and killed the bus driver. he kept the child in an underground bunker.

yesterday f-b-i agents stormed the bunker, killed the hostage taker, and rescued the boy. after negotiations with dykes broke down. still a criminal investigation slacken the release a lot of information about that. the child was reunited with his family in a local hospital. his uncle says he is kept there overnight. the first african- american woman to represent illinois and congress has died. tying a time in congress focused on the establishing universal health insurance. he was 81 years old. federal investigators

have started examining the finances of former chicago alderwoman sandi jackson. the sun-times reports, the authorities are questioning the legitimacy of the monthly consultant fees she received from the congressional campaign of her husband jesse jackson junior. mrs. jackson won't comment to the paper. but she told wgn, she has hired former u.s. attorney dan webb to represent her. president obama has signed-off on legislation to avoid a default on federal loans. the measure extends the federal government's ability to borrow new money through mid-may. it effectively suspends the 16- point-four trillion dollar debt ceiling in the meantime. in exchange. the bill requires congress to pass a budget by mid-april or have lawmakers' pay withheld. the budget for 2014 was supposed to be delivered by the president to congress yesterday but insiders say it'll probably be delayed until sometime in march. the u-s justice deparment has filed a civil lawsuit against the "standard and poor's" credit rating agency. the lawsuit accuses s-and-p of

ingoring credit risks in order to favor the interests of large investment banks and others. s-and-p and other credit rating agencies have been criticized for giving high ratings to subprime and other mortgage securities. which lost value and contributed to the financial crisis. s-and-p officials denied any wrongdoing. according to a new study chicago has one of the most unpredictable commutes in the nation. the new study, called the "urban mobility report" recommends quadrupling the amount of time you should give yourself for your commute. researchers say if you plan your drive expecting normal levels of traffic you will be late about half the time. by quadrupling the time you give yourself the study says you will be early, or on time 95-percent of the time. the chicago region ranks 7th among large urban areas with the most unreliable highway travel times. coming up next the latest on olympic skier lindsey vonn after she was airlifted to a hospital during today's alpine ski world championships in austria. plus, why super dome officials were concerned about a power outage at the stadium before

the super bowl.

pennsylvania's new attorney general has named a top aide to review the jerry sandusky child sex-abuse case. sworn into office only three weeks ago kathleen kane delivered on a campaign promise to review the case. she wants to know why it took her predecessor three years to criminally charge the former penn state assistant football coach. sandusky is serve 30 to 60 years in prison for his crimes. a judge has denied george zimmermans's request to delay his trial in the shooting death of trayvon martin. today would have been martin's 18th birthday, instead prosecutors were back in court discussing evidence including data downloaded from martin's phone. it's been nearly a year since zimmerman fatally shot the florida teenager. zimmerman admitted to the shooting, but claims it was

self defense. before the hearing. martin's family held a prayer service outside the courthouse. president obama's pick for treasury secretary may face a tough nomination process. republicans are accusing jack lew of breaking federal law. eight senate republicans signed a letter saying lew failed to warn congress about a medicare funding problem when he was mr. obama's budget director. alabama senator jeff sessions leading the fight against lew says he also lied when he said the 2012 budget would not add to the nation's debt. the administration defends lew's claim that the president's budget would not add to the debt. saying it's accurate if you don't count the interest on the debt. republicans didn't buy that argument then and they're not buying it now. democratic senator robert menendez of new jersey is firing back at claims that he engaged in parties with prostitutes during trips to the dominican republic. just before election day this

past november, a conservative online publication cited three unidentified sources who claimed menendez flew on private planes to the caribbean and had sex parties with prostitutes during the trips. menendez tells c-n-n those claims are all false. buddy can find them nobody ever met them nobody ever talked to him. all of those accusations are absolutely false. also menendez is also under fire for waiting so long to pay back the charges for using a donor's plane to fly to the caribbean. the senator said once he was made aware the 60-thousand dollar bill was outstanding, he personally paid it. olympic skier lindsey vonn has been airlifted to a hospital following a serious crash in austria. the 4-time overall world cup champion lost balance on her right leg while landing after a jump at the alpine world ski championships. vonn then collided with a gate

before coming to a halt. vonn's injuries are not life threatening, but she is being treated for a "complex knee injury". vonn's accident comes only days after x-games snow-mobiler caleb moore died as a result of injuries sustained in a crash. we still don't know what caused the blackout at the super bowl but a few theories have been ruled out. officials said some equipment cut the power at the superdome after it sensed an abnormality of some kind. public records show that the stadium's electric feeders had some decay and risked a chance of failing. this was back in october. some equipment was replaced in december, but that is not being blamed for the blackout. the n-f-l also says the beyonce halftime show wasn't the problem, since it used its own generators. yesterday, british researchers confirmed that they found the skeleton of king richard the third buried beneath a parking lot. today, they're showing us what he may have looked like. the researchers built this facial reconstruction using a c-t scan of the king's remains. the face has a slightly arched nose and prominent chin. similar to features shown in portraits of richard the third painted after his death. historian and author john

ashdown-hill said seeing the reconstruction was "almost like being face to face with a real person". still to come this midday the warning to college graduates about student loans. some universities are starting to sue former students for not making payments. and later in lunchbreak: we're making tuna carpaccio!

the department of justice along with 14 states is selling standard and poor's alleging that they downplayed credit risks leading to the country's financial meltdown. accuses s&p of giving high credit ratings.

eventually causing investors billions in losses. illinois is included in that dispute. stocks advancing and rebounding from a lower close yesterday. this just breaking. the u.s. deficit will fall below one trillion dollars. the budget was a priority. and it was supposed to be delivered to lawmakers yesterday. a defense official with knowledge of the budget process tells bloomberg that the president will probably delay that budget plan until sometime in mid march. the obama administration has been signaling that the blue print would miss the

deadline. once i get moving on to another story here. if you're not pay for student loans and could be your college all modern tracking you down. the fault on almost a billion dollars worth of student loans are leaving schools little chilis right now. the students to not pay them back there is less too long to new students who cannot afford college. princeton review out with a list of 150 best value colleges for 2013. these are schools that they consider have excellent education and financial aid. it might be a little snowy and cold. if you

ride a bicycle to work you are probably happier. in his study shows getting to work by an active transportation increases your well-being. that is the latest in business. >> good to have you in. >> and there is another story on commute times. the most unpredictable commute times in the nation. yet you have another story. it is about carpooling. not just because the gas prices are terrible. driving along the

increased 6.7%. we interviewed an expert. he is a professor of economics. he did a study that basically says more people are carpal in. this is called park and pulling. pooling. you come back and everybody has your car. it is sort of the best of both worlds. get some breakdowns on who is doing this. it tends to be people of the same job level and of the same gender. they want the quality time with their children. >> they might have errands to run. if your area commuter

>> social butterflies are more apt to want to seek out a car pool or take public transportation. some people really look forward to that. it is interesting is they all came from the american times survey. this is where they compiled all of this data. gas prices went crazy. there were forced to try to figure out a new way. that is how they came up with the idea. more and more people actually moving back into the city because they're trying to cater to the cities of living population. it is good for the economy and it is good for the environment.

>> i do not know if there is a web site for a period. >> we will get you there. of the investigationcoming up next the investigation after a garage exploded overnight in the far south suburbs. plus a familiar face at the daley center this morning as mayor emmanuel reported for jury duty. a lot of you may have heard about probiotics but may not realize what they can do for your health. we know what it takes to look good on the outside but with 70% of our immune

system located in our gut the core of our health is truly on the inside. that's why i take new trubiotics. it's a daily probiotic that helps in two ways. one helps support digestive health the other immune health. stay true to your health. new trubiotics. from the makers of one-a-day.

the motive appears to be robbery. when authorities went to the house through the suspects were busy partying. the son of a police sergeant. investigators are trying to determine whether a gas leak

caused a garage explosion. the garage in the home had collapsed. officials say it appears a gas buildup inside the process led to the explosion. the homeowners were not home at the time. two firefighters are taken to hospital from the scene in an early-morning fire. this started at about 2:00 a.m.. at least six people including a nine year-old child were able to get safely. one firefighter experienced shortness of breath. the second suffered an ankle injury. no word on what started this fire. first on the agenda watching a video called how to be a juror. this message was on

his twitter account. later on he sent out this picture with the caption waiting patiently to be called in to the jury panel. still to come this midday. tom skilling has your full forecast!

there's a narrow band coming southeastward out of wisconsin. it may briefly cut the visibility and give us some heavy snow for a while. he will keep an eye on that but only for a couple of hours. it is the latest alberta clippers' tight system to come across the area. the conceit that we've had some sunshine this morning and little snow flurries at times as well.

they have not amounted to very much. it has been pretty interesting the last couple of weeks because we have picked up the bulk of our snow. about 85% of the seasonal snow has come town. >> here of the clouds. concede they're kind of bundy. they're

producing a brief burst of snow that lasts a couple of hours. madison wisconsin picked up about 1.4 in. as this went across the area earlier this morning. it is just the latest little clipper to ride into the area. down by the ohio river this afternoon temperatures will be up in the fifties even as we sit here in the low 30's. here's a good radar view of this band of snow closing in on us. it looks like it lasts about two hours. it comes down pretty dramatically. rockford is down to about one and three-quarters mile. as this comes and it will look pretty dramatic like we're really going to get in on something. we've had four of

them through yesterday. that by the way as the first time in four years that we have put four consecutive days together with measurable snow. snow's seven of the past 11 days. there again is the basis for that 82 percent of the season snow. that is not a huge amount for the season but all of it has been compressed in the last couple of weeks. the 455 it is still small and in northern italy and theindianna. it looks like some like a fax now goes into michigan. this little band can flirt with the chicago shoreline toward morning. here's how much

snow will be coming down across the area. not a great deal but enough to a white and things up. be aware of the fact that it will be a little dicey. on thursday there is another clipper that starts laying down his band of snow. mrs on thursday. they could get a little dusting of snow. that one may be an ice producer. this thing will come in here and when that happens you get the clouds to form. couple little flakes of snow to mix and. the jet stream will blow from west to east. that is why we are getting out of the bitterly cold air we were and last week. this is a powerful weather system. our

moving weather maps. here's this little clicker system that passes this afternoon. here comes the next weather system pulling moisture up. we could get into this little area which is the way we represent freezing rain or a mix of precipitation. a passes by. friday is nice. mechanicals will work well. nonetheless it will be a little icy. one more look at the thursday system. high pressure comes in here during the day and friday. these bright colors are wind. when you have a lot of

wind and have a pretty well in that system. that is what we have coming up on sunday. it may rain at that time. the system will tug we are together back in here next week. looks like a pretty cold mid february patterned after this week of more seasonable cold there. cloudy and breezy today. seasonable temperatures. we have sporadic flurries and a burst of snow for a couple of hours. for tonight clods and maybe some flurries early. the clouds break at times. the northwest winds lock and five to 14. that should be kind of a nice day. tomorrow

is the first day of a normal high temperatures around here. first time since christmas eve. to hear on the up till slang as the days get longer and get a little bit more warmth from the sunlight. i have a long way to go before we are back to normal. time for today's trivia. on this day in 1934, baseball hall of famer hank aaron was born. what was his first minor league team? a. eau claire bears b. winona pirates c. superior blues the answer still to come this midday! [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants

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in medical watch. an especially nasty strain of norovirus is spreading like wildfire this year. causing vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps. it's bad when you get it yourself, and even worse when your children have it. here's what to do if your kids come down with norovirus. most importantly, push fluids breast milk, formula, or a re- hydration solution like pedialyte for babies. pedialyte or water for toddlers. older kids can sip on sports drinks like gatorade re-introduce foods carefully try things like popsicles and jello then crackers, bread pasta rice and pretzels. and call the doctor if your child shows signs of dehydration. too much time on the couch watching tv could damage a man's sperm production.

researchers studied nearly 200 healthy men ages 18 to 22. they recorded the men's tv watching habits, along with how often they exercised and how intensely they worked out.. then collected semen samples from each man. men who did moderate to vigorous exercise 15 hours or more per week had a significantly higher sperm concentration than those who worked out less than five hours a week. and men who watched more than 20 hours of tv a week had almost half the sperm concentration as men who watched no tv. the study is published online in the british journal of sports medicine. chewing gum may be good for your brain. a new study used brain scans to see which areas of the brain were active as study participants responded to on- screen performance tests. some were chewing gum others were not. japanese researchers report chewing appeared to boost thinking and alertness and reaction times among the gum chewers were up to ten percent faster. the researchers suggest it's because the act of chewing leads to improvements in blood flow to the brain.

i do not chew gum. have to find another way to get my brain working. lunchbreak is next. the chef from river north's "epic" is here with unique recipes incorporating chocolate including tuna carpaccio with cocoa.

[ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ breathes deeply ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! we're learning unique ways to incorporate chocolate into more

recipes. >> this is going to be my favorite male ever. meal ever. everybody knows chocolate as a dessert ingredients. from ages people have been using chocolate and savory things. i want to talk about the other dishes. we have a mixed green salad. with shaved white chocolate. for dessert there are all three different types of chocolate. dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate. i liked bright pink red. the cool thing about this dish is a little goes a long

way. for 6 ounces you can feed four people for a first course. part of a nice dinner. i take a flat bottom andpan and you p ound it out. keep turning the plate. it flattens itself out. i did one ahead of time. this is what it should look like. a lot of times they put ground almonds in it. >>how much? >>i will do it. we are a good team that way. raw coc beans. sprinkle some of those on there.

it is going to make everything else pop. this is not sweet choclate. we have bitter, we have salty we have spice. >>these are spanish almonds. worth the investment. some chili powder. it is a sweet chili powder. i made this is made with that almond oil. it usually has a red pepper puree. this is your twist on it. >>i am a chef i am going to put

some of this on here. making it worth the amount i am going to charge for it. >>look how beautiful it turned out. people love chocolate. >>a lot of really cool stuff going on in these dishes. i love that combination. >>all these different flavors come out when you are eating. a different experienc in each bite.e in each bite.

>> i like that you are doing this throughout the month of february. >> allow you to tell me a little bit more about what goes into that one. >>some veal stock red wine, dark chocolate cinnamon sticks, almonds, garlic, apples, jalapenos. cook it for three hours until it falls off the bone. the salad here has dried strawberries, omens, vinaigrette, shaved white chocolate. >> if you want to make reservations it is available

through february. go to epicrestaurantchicago.com. >> for today is recipes log on to our web site

on this day in 1934, baseball hall of famer hank aaron was born. what was his first minor league team? a. eau claire bears b. winona pirates c. superior blues the eau claire bears. >> is to our long snow and that is coming through here. 3 mi. at ohare. visibility's are coming down the snow comes into the area. and is writing down at

thermal boundary between the cold air and northern midwest. we are where we were yesterday at this time. that is what is feeling the snow showers with temperatures at 30. a year running 22.5 degrees colder than the first days of february last year. 31 tomorrow. sunshine is back with an icy makes. mix. >>we are back at 5 and 9.